I’ve come to test your tubes with my new Jackson!
Strange things happen when your parents decide to clean out their basement and offer up vintage junk they’d been hoarding! This past weekend, I acquired a Jackson Instruments Model 648A portable dynamic tube tester (circa 1948 – maybe). Now I’m looking for some tubes to test!!
“Tubes? What are tubes?? Yogurt tubes?? Why do they need to be tested?”
-iPod wearing brat
Before transistors and other solid state components, electronic devices were powered by vacuum tubes – sealed glass containers that could amplify, or switch signals by controlling the flow of electrons. The development of this technology began in the late 1800s, and was commercially viable in the early 1900s. This made consumer radios and TVs a reality.
The problem with tubes is that they wore out over time. They were reasonably easy to replace – just pop them out of their sockets. The hard part was figuring out which tube was failing. To the rescue came products like this Jackson. They were used mostly by radio and TV repairmen. Some stores also offered tube testing machines to consumers who could handle their own maintenance.
Using a tube tester though is not trivial though. Every tube is not created equally, so for each model you need to manually calibrate the testing apparatus. Check out the UI below! I’ll let you know how difficult this is once I find me some tubes…
BTW – For a great “vacuum tube fanboy” site, check out Tales From the Tone Lounge!
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